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Mother (Matriarch, Mother Nature)
The Mother is the life-giver, the source of
nurturing and nourishment,
unconditional fountain of love, patience, devotion, caring,
and unselfish acts. This archetype is the keeper and protector of life,
from children to the family to the greater Mother Nature
archetype whose province is the Earth and all life. Mother Nature, also
known as Gaia, is the Goddess of Life, the caretaker of the
living environment of this planet. She is recognized as powerful, and
when
storms leave death and destruction in their wake, she
may be referred to as wrathful. The power of compassion and the endless
capacity to forgive her children and put them before
herself are essential to the Good Mother. The Devouring, Abusive,
Abandoning,
and Working Mother each represent different
aspects of this primal archetype within the entire human community.
Although Mothers have always worked, the contemporary archetype of the
Career or Working Mother reflects the crises
experienced by many women who seek also to be Devoted Mothers. Measured
against the impossible mythic ideal of the Perfect
Mother, the Career Mom is sometimes assumed unfairly to be a mother who
puts her own needs before those of the children. This
is an archetypal crisis for many women.
The Devouring Mother "consumes" her children psychologically and
emotionally
and often instills in them feelings of guilt at
leaving her or becoming independent. The Abusive and Abandoning Mothers
violate natural law by harming their own young.
Connections to the Mother archetype are not to be measured only by
whether
a woman is a biological mother. If you are
intimately connected to nurturing and protecting the environment,
including
through gardening or farming, or supporting any life
form, you should strongly consider whether your bond to Mother Nature
is
part of a life-long devotion that defines you. You may
also recognize a strong bond to the Mother archetype in the form of one
or all of her shadows. While it is difficult to admit, some
women may have to face the fact that their children see them through
the
shadow aspects of the Mother, including the Abusive or
Abandoning Mother.
Just as women can have a real connection to the Father archetype when
they
take on the paternal role in the household, so some
men may relate to being "Mr. Mom," yet another contemporary sculpting
of
the Mother archetype. The qualities that are
associated with this archetype can be expressed in other than
biological
ways, such as giving birth to books or ideas, or nurturing
others.
Films: Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama; Myrna Loy in Cheaper by the
Dozen
and Belles on Their Toes; Sophia Loren in Two
Women; Sally Field in Places in the Heart; Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin
Eater; Rosalind Russell in Gypsy (Devouring); Katharine
Hepburn in Suddenly Last Summer (shadow); Faye Dunaway in Mommie
Dearest
(shadow); Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian
Candidate; Gladys Cooper in Now Voyager (shadow); Alberta Watson in
Spanking
the Monkey (Incestuous).
Drama: Mother Courage by Bertoldt Brecht; Medea by Euripedes; The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.
Religion/Myth: As with Gods, Goddesses, and Mystics, the Mother appears
in all religious traditions and myths, usually as the
Divine Mother. These are just a few examples: Lakshmi, Durga, Kali
(Hinduism);
Mary/Miryam (Christianity/Islam); Sarai, Naomi
(Egyptian myth); Tellus (Roman Mother Earth goddess); Cihuacoatl (Aztec
Mother Earth goddess, also patron of birth and of
women who die in childbirth).
Fairy Tales: Mother Goose, Mother Hubbard
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